Having people ASK to do business with you.
The holy grail of running a successful business is to have people knocking on your door and asking to do business with you. Instead of worrying about making lists, cold calling, warm markets, and asking for referrals, word has gotten around that you are the person to talk to.
One way businesses are trying to accomplish this is through what is called 'viral marketing'. Large corporations are hiring people to go out into the off-line and on-line communities to talk about how great their products are in an attempt to get people talking about it and telling others about it. The theory being that you are much more likely to try a product if it is referred by a friend than just hearing about it on TV.
When these viral campaigns work, a product or service can become a huge success almost overnight. The problem is that they are artificially contrived. They may get a lot of people to take a look at your product, but if doesn't have all the other factors to bring them back, the buzz will fade really fast.
What you need is a way to create a viral campaign that keeps on growing. A way to create a marketing campaign that naturally keeps growing because of its perceived on-going value. The best way to do this is by learning how to teach others. Most people love to learn. In fact, if you did a study, you would find that the best customers, the best employees, the best prospects, or the best distributors are the ones that love to learn.
The equation why this is successful is quite simple:
Teaching = Trust = Repeat Business + Referrals
I guess I've always been fortunate in that I've always enjoyed teaching people. It seems that the longest lasting and most enjoyable jobs I ended up in, I'd find myself in some teaching position. The more I taught, the faster up the ladder I found myself going. But it seemed that when I finally made it up to management level and got so busy in paperwork that the teaching stopped and turned over to others, the job fell apart for some reason. I never understood why until I started seriously studying Marketing. Then it started making sense. When you are a teacher:
- You have to learn the subject better than your students
- Your students/prospects see you as experts
- Experts in our society are considered leaders
- Human nature moves us towards those we consider leaders
When I was on the floor teaching people, they perceived me as the expert and were willing to belong to my team and let me lead them to the desired result. Once I was moved to an office with the door on it, I lost that connection and loyalty that came with it. When new procedures came down from upper management, I would hand them to supervisors and tell them to implement them. I stopped learning and stopped teaching and found myself eventually replaced by someone who understood these principles better.
Now, I know that as your business grows you will need to start delegating. As you climb the corporate ladder, others will take your place. That's fine, as long as you become their teacher and instruct them to teach others. When a new product or service or directive comes to your desk, go learn it first and start teaching it those you manage. Replicate that to the bottom of your organization. Not only will the department you are in charge of have a tight knit consistency, but when that person on the bottom rung knows the education is coming from you, then you will maintain their loyalty up though all the levels between you and them.
You probably won't find this in your standard college business text, but the concept is fully scalable from the corporate level down to the sole proprietorship.